Military Convoys in Metro Manila - Not a Coup preparation but probably something better

An unannounced rumble of Army and Marine convoys of fully armed troops in military lorrys backed by a couple of armored vehicles along the main thoroughfares of Metro Manila last Tuesday until Thursday, July 29 to 31 2014, gave some jitters to a curious but weary public. An earlier announcement by former navy officer and now Senator Antonio Trillanes III of reports of an emerging plans for a coup d'etat against the administration of President Benigno Aquino III has been publicly circulating for days, and the convoy's appearance strengthened speculations from the public that the senator might be telling the truth.

A V-150 armored vehicle from the Philippine Army's Mechanized Infantry Division as seen along EDSA together with other military vehicles. Take note of the lorry in the background carrying what appears to be crates that are usually used for ammunitions. Photo taken from GMA News website.

The AFP was quick to dismiss the rumors even before the convoy rolled the city streets, saying that the AFP will not be involved im such actions. The AFP also announced that the recent sight of military convoys in the capital was just a normal logistical movements from Northern Luzon Command in Tarlac City and Southern Luzon Command in Lucena City, to military installations in Metro Manila. The Philippine Army's spokesman also confirmed that the convoy carried weapons and ammunition to Fort Bonifacio in Taguig. Eyewitness accounts said that the trucks were loaded with crates, possibly a cargo of arms and ammunition. But MaxDefense have reasons to believe that aside from a possible logistics run, there might be something else

A Philippine Army V-150 armored vehicle (foreground), and Kia KM450 utility truck (background) are among the vehicles in convoys seen along Metro Manila streets recently. Photo taken from European Pressphoto Agency website.

This V-300 Fire Support Vehicle from the Philippine Marine Corps was also part of one of the convoys seen recently in Metro Manila.Photo taken from European Pressphoto Agency website.

Some reports and eyewitness accounts spotted a joint Army - Marine convoy headed to the port area in Manila last July 31, and came out with cargo inside shipping containers and headed back to AFP Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City. The AFP did not elaborate the said logistics run, but MaxDefense believes that the convoy picked-up a delivery of weapons or ammunition from the port area.

The joint Army-Marines convoy spotted in the Tondo district near the port area. Photo taken from GMA News website.

MaxDefense have reasons to believe that the cargo was actually the first batch of Remington R4 carbine for the Philippine Army, wherein the first batch were expected to arrive by August 2014. The AFP and the DND has been vocal on this specific program of the AFP Modernization, and transporting a large yield of high powered firearms is a good reason for a need for such a large armed escort force from the military. It might also be possible that the convoys from NOLCOM and SOLCOM will also be carrying back the new rifles to their respective command headquarters when they head back within a few days, to distribute the rifles to line units. MaxDefense covered the acquisition of the Remington R4 as the next new rifle of the Philippine Army in a separate blog entry.

The Remington R4, their version of the M4 series carbine, was ordered by the AFP recently, with the first batch of deliveries from a total of more than 63,000 rifles expected to arrive on August 2014. Photo taken from Remington Defense website.

MaxDefense is still confirming the results of the said logistics run, although it is expected that if the MaxDefense opinion in this blog entry is correct, the AFP and DND will happily announce it formally to the public very soon.==========UPDATES:==========August 4, 2014:Philstar just confirmed what MaxDefense thought of the quick runs by the army and marines to the Manila port area. The first major shipment of Remington R4 (M4) carbines were delivered to the AFP.

The Remington R4, their version of the M4 carbine, as shown to the media by the AFP.Photo taken from the Philippine Army c/o Philstar.com.

It is worth noting that based on the photo above, the rifle comes with a Picatinny rail for future mounting of rifle accessories, rail covers to protect the rails, a cleaning kit, and a rifle sling. MaxDefense suggests for the Army's investment on higher quality ammunition magazines, and gradual acquisition of optical sights to aid the Army's riflemen to improve their aiming time and accuracy when firing compared to the standard iron sights.Aside from Philstar, Rappler has also confirmed the rifle deliveries and the use of heavy armed escorts in its latest news reports.

As the r4 shares with the m4 a lower muzzle velocity than the long barreled m16, I hope the military also bothered to get new ammo that makes up for the lower muzzle velocity. The US military found that out the hard way in the blackhawk down incident

Then if the convoy get ambushed and the cargo lost you will say that why did the AFP failed to provide the necessary security required for the transport? It was a multi million worth of rifles, it was proper that the army and the marines give the best security they could provide. It was a good exercise of diligence on their part.

Please stop blaspheming the officers. They are well trained and they know how to handle such situations. They have big responsibility on their shoulders. If I was on their shoes, I would have even requested for a helicopter escort to do overwatch if possible. :

Blasheming? Are the officers God? So if the convoy gets attacked by a bunch of motorcycle riding goons, what do they do they start firing their 90mm? Where's the police escort to keep the traffic at bay? Do the V-300 and V-150's bully their way of traffic? Do you think it is prudent to have the police assist in the flow of traffic with these cargos? What about Helicopter? Won't it be nice to have an air cover to see everything going on? Yeah, go ahead. Have your V-300 pick up the cargo. Christian Cruz is right.

The Senator is spreading false rumors and that is a disservice to the nation. He needs to be quiet and not alarm the population. Official announcement ought not to come from him even if he is in charge of the armed services committee of the Senate. Why? Because he's been involved in two coups already. Is our memory this short?

I pray the AFP has a robust inventory tracking system. Heard stories about officers selling rifles to terrorists. Such system should ideally be handled by an outside private contractor to minimize inside jobs.

New generation have bigger posture than old generation. The current armored vehicles in the pictures are cramped for the new generation soldiers. There's even a fat driver in the third picture. This posture problem also exist in many armed forces where their new generation soldiers are better fed than the old ones. I'm sure AFP is making plans replace those small armored vehicles with bigger ones.

Even if the fighter aircraft manufacturers position themselves, if the PAF does nor open a requirement for such, then it doesn't matter. Important thing is for the PAF to start a MCA/MRF requirement first, just like the SAA/LIFT a few years ago

I would still prefer the M16A4 over this M4/R4 variant which in my opinion is only good for urban and CQCs setting. When you get pinned down by M1 or M14 fire and you will find your M4/R4 outranged and useless. D na tayo natuto sa shortcomings ng Baby ArmaLite.

Pang jeproks lang to tamang sikat sa video games. Mark my word sooner or later lalabas mga reklamo dito and the common sundalo will ask his old reliable and proven M16A1/A2 back.

Sir, may I ask whats your basis for your assumption?If I can remember it correctly, M4 is also a shortened or derivative of the M16A1/A2 family of rifle with a shortened barrel and additional upgrades.

Now, the basis of buying the M4 is based on the experience and findings regarding jungle warfare. In Jungle warfare that range is really short, as in 35 meters or less and a maximum of 600. In urban warfare the distance can be as much as a couple of hundred meters down to 2 or 3 meters depending on how much damage has been done to the structures. The more damage, the more hiding places. Desert warfare, unlimited. Woodlands again, depends on density.

Our Marines developed the MSSR based on this finding of shorter ranges of encounters. Here's a link about the MSSR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Scout_Sniper_Rifle

How can you be so sure that the M16A4 is much better than the R4? M16 is a technology since the 1960's and it is a gun that is so sensitive. R4 of the M4A1 vesion of Remington is the improved version of the M16A4. It is much shorter and lighter than the M16. Most of the problems of the M16 is eliminated on the M4.

Typical officer who needs to attend a few anger management sessions. You need to calm down Officer Anonymous. Don't you be putting your finger in my behind by spewing four-letter words. I'm in agreement of show force with you but using more of civilian force, SUCH AS POLICE, whether its a hundred I don't mind, but not using useless fire support vehicles. I'm also suggesting to use helicopter cover whether from the AF or police its fine. Now you can have maybe a few fully laden Kia trucks of Army/Marine soldiers which is fine also. But not your V-300's even a V-150 is also an overkill. Show some professionalism, instead of yabang!

So what you guys are saying is that the reason we got screwed by China in Scarborough Shoal is because we sent a warship rather than a Coast Guard Ship? Does Army/Marines have Police powers? I think you guys are right. Those officers under the cloak of Anonymous can probably refute our answers. They're fuming mad for being criticized for sending their V-300 rather the L-300.

Sir with due respect, the AFP officers knows better than you (unless you're an officer too) on how to manage logistical runs. These rifles are for the afp not for pnp so security would be in the hands of afp. And as to china bully us, its because we don't have enough vessels to patrol the Wps. We could have sent an aircraft carrier if we have one. But what can we do? Only gdp is capable of doing so.

This is not really new considering that the ABC for the frigates included the ammunition and weapons systems, and these are internally separated within the acquisition.

The main issue on this is it would delay the entire acquisition as the shipbuilders need to revise their bids to fit on the separation. Weapons systems acquisition should actually be the responsibility of the PH government as foreign governments don't usually allow transfer of these weapons without negotiations with the end user government. This is very applicable on American and Western systems where the government of the weapons source evalutate the end user government's human rights standing and policies, the effects on balance of power in the area, the integrity of the armed forces using it, the leadership itself, and many other political factors, and also the strength of the PH lobbying.

It is still a good thing that his formal separation happened before the 2nd stage bid submission, and although the shipbuilders are free now from the burden of shouldering the weapons negotiations, the separation may further delay the bidding and awarding, and delay the delivery of the ships further. The DND appears to be at fault for not realizing this early on during the 1st stage bidding.

If you've been reading MaxDefense from the beginning, it was originally meant to be a military-semi political blog, which was the reason it gained popularity early on. It was only decided recently to stay a bit away from politics and focus more on defense because of not having enough time to focus on everything. This is the same issue why the number of blogs per month dropped to an average of 2-3 now, from 5-7 in the first few months. Remember MaxDefense is non profit and ads free, and I don't get any financial benefitd on this. For those asking, the highest rated blog entry here is the Taiwan saga issue, which until now was not beaten by any MaxDefense blog entry in terms of number of reads.

Also, defense is closely related to politics and policies of the government. MaxDefense also has the need to hit on government issues that affect the AFP's welfare and modernizaton, as well as any negative impact on the morale and image of the AFP. But doesn't mean the AFP is always right, we'll also have to check them once in a while.

The military has reasons to keep news on the delivery of the M4 carbine rifle tight for confidentiality & security reasons lets keep it that way. Rumors of coup etc has no place in your blog, its fitting to be in blog about politics and the military.

Rumors of coup affects the image of the military, especially when it is not true. MaxDefense was made to help the AFP in giving the public the right information of what their AFP is all about. If you allow rumors to spread and damage the AFP's credibiluty and image, then it's not helpful to MaxDefense's existence as well.

Our foot soldiers are getting refitted with new and better armament, what about personal body (vest) protection? How many rounds does a magazine of these Remington R4 can contain? and how many mags will be issued to our soldiers? Good Job from PNOY. Congrats AFP. More power and more project to materialize.

we need to project ability to resist and counter attack ability.just my opinion:1. can we ask japan for gov't assist purchase/donate 10-15 Hayabusa-class missile patrol boat - i think its better than buying old US coast guard cutters and use it as frigates (without missile weapons)2. should we buy from european nations like sweden or norway or germany for corvetts? (with anit-air/ship/submarine missiles)3. will A-10 serve as anti-ship platform with its 30mm gutling cannon?can't understand why the two cutters we bought from us coast guard doesn't consist of missile....( if i am correct, we are the only nation in asia without missile capability)another topic: TA-50 is untested. can we buy the Type 88 Surface-to-Ship Missile from japan?

Phil army and phil marine are the only user of this type of m4......this remington r4 or remington gpr.....this rifle enter ls in 2010.....no other user. I cant find extensive test and costumer review on this rifle on internet even in youture nothing

A former naval officer of the Philippine Navy, initially a reservist before becoming an active officer, opted to retire early and migrate to another country. Aside from being in the service, he has been following Philippine and regional defence issues, as well as military technology and industrial movements, and developments in regional military upgrades since the mid 1990s. He has been involved in other defence sites & minor publications for the past several years, and a regular at regional defence exhibitions & symposiums. Currently works as a systems consultant for a foreign military organisation. As a defence writer, he has no political affiliation, and would not hesitate to criticise any political leader, organisation, or political part when issues on defence and security of the Philippines are believed to be in peril.